Bitcoins worth Rs 41 lakh stolen from woman’s e-wallet account

NEW DELHI: Think twice before you invest in crypto currencies. Delhi Police is investigating a case of Bitcoin theft where a woman lost around Rs 41 lakh after her wallet and account was allegedly hacked by unidentified men. The woman has claimed that there are more victims who might have lost around Rs 50 crore.
The woman, a resident of Mayur Vihar, has approached the economic offences wing with her complaint. She first lost around 6.5 Bitcoins worth Rs 6.5 lakh to hackers and lost another Rs 35 lakh to cheats who claimed to help her retrieve the amount, she claimed. The cyber cell has begun a probe.

She told cops that she initially invested around 0.4 Bitcoins with a company in February 2017 after being introduced to it by her friend. The firm had organised seminars in five-star hotels to lure investors. In May 2017, she again invested in the company after her mutual fund policy matured.

“I invested all my savings in the company along with my friends and family members. The company owners assured me returns of 12% monthly on my investment,” the victim said. She got the returns till August 2017 in her bank account.

Since August, the company started giving returns through its own ‘crypto currency’. This attracted protests from investors, including the victim, who demanded returns in Indian rupees. Sniffing a fraud, she then asked the firm to return her invested money.

In October 2017, she was contacted by the firm who asked her email ID and password registered with the company’s website so that her return could be processed. However, she had no idea that she had walked into a trap. “On November 8, 2017, my blockchain wallet was hacked, which had 6.5 Bitcoins. The hackers also deleted all the data on my email ID,” the woman said.

Four days after losing her Bitcoins, Shah sought the help of an acquaintance who claimed to help in retrieving the lost money by ‘earning’ Bitcoins through binary trading. The fraudster listed websites like ‘FXoptions.com’,‘Cryptominers.com’,’coinspaceprofit.com’ and ‘24options.com.’ to the victim. She believed the men and paid Rs 35 lakh, she said.

“After getting the amount, he started complaining that he has been diagnosed with throat cancer and cannot meet anyone. Later, he stopped responding to our calls and other communications,” she said. Realising she had been duped, she finally approached the police.

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